LFF

OK! I'm back! Here is the clip. 4 different track segments, 4 different genres. Enjoy!

Continuation from THIS thread. Thanks! The noise floor/pops/clicks has nothing to do with the actual rig. The noise floor/pops/clicks mainly depend on your cart and the quality of the vinyl. The vinyl in this case was good at best. FAR from mint. I have to go out right now, but later I will post some examples of mint vinyl on a very high-end rig and some cheap poor man's rig. One clip was transferred on an $18,000.00 turntable. One was done on a used $35.00 turntable and $80.00 cart. The others were transferred on complete rigs that cost $2,000.00 at most. Which is which? All of the vinyl was either mint or near mint. This is why I think some vinyl audiophile thoughts and opinions are BULLSHIT! If you want sound like this you DO NOT need to spend a lot of $$$ and you don't need a lot accessories like a Clever Little Clock or Magic Pebbles or mega-buck-iso-blocks. Isolation works but you can spend a total of $100.00 or less and do it yourself and get the same results as the crap you pay $800.00 for. Same goes for hi-rez vinyl transfers! No need to do high rez when doing vinyl transfers for CD use. I had a client pay $80.00 bucks for a shitty hi-rez vinyl transfer. I topped their best hi-rez for a total of $25.00 at 16/44.1! Now, if you get a mint vinyl record and cue it up on a "cheap" technics - will you get same results? YES - if you know how to clean it up properly and properly master the music, you can get the exact same results I did. People love to make others think that vinyl is complicated and that set-up is difficult, etc etc. While it's not as easy as hitting play on a CD player, vinyl can be easy and fun! The real trick and the HARDEST is learning how to properly master the transferring and (re)mastering. Lot's of tricks to learn but it takes time, practice and a good ear. Check back later for the sound clips.

I have an extra one if you want it.

The ipod can show images while playing FLAC files if you have it Rockboxed.

Two words with some numbers: Emu 0404 USB

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Mosaic sets are awesome. I have heard quite a few of them and they are great. SQ wise I think they do a great job. If your into that stuff, a more budget oriented label to check out is JSP, especially the stuff restored by Ted Kendall.

You guys are comparing apple to oranges to cucumbers to pears to grapes. All the bands mentioned here in this thread thus far kick ass. Beatles, Stones, Zombies, Beach Boys, Eagles, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, etc - I know all these bands and have custom audiophile cuts of their stuff. IMHO, there is no "best of" here, just favorites. They are all GREAT bands with GREAT music. This is the same as looking at the Mona Lisa and comparing it to The Scream and then comparing it with The Son of Man. No doubt they are all works of art but people will prefer one over the other due to personal choice rather than which artist had "greater" talent. Music is a universal language and we must all appreciate each band for what they were. Mostly, we need to be open minded regarding all types of music. As Beethoven once said, music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. However, keep in mind that Beethoven also said the following: "Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend." Just my 2 cents. BTW - I picked The Beatles.

I'd take purity of sound over awesomeness anyday. Awesomeness I reserve for speakers. That's why I have JBL 4311's. They play almost everything at an awesome level. For headphones, I prefer purity of sound as I use most to monitor and for special listening.

Didn't like the Shure huh?

Is the Kevin Gray version better than the Steve Hoffman version?

IMHO, it's some of the best stuff you can use. Although I hear coat hangers are now popular.

Anyone want to make me an HD6x0 cable?

I understand completely. I'd love to post it all over the place but I can't. IMHO, it is extremely hard to tell the difference between the original and the mp3. I have Rockbox on my iPod and have both lossless and mp3 on it. When I played it for people at the National Convention, not one could tell that they were listening to mp3. You've probaby already listened to it.

Yes. Almost everything I own is backed up in APE or FLAC. Some stuff, like some rare needledrops, are archived in 32/96 WAV files. However, for iPod and Car MP3 CD's, I use 128MP3.

Yes, but Fraunhofer has many different encoders. You want to find the original released sometime in 1991. It is the best one. LAME can't even touch it, although I admit LAME sounds good at 320kps. However, the original sounds almost lossless at 128kps.

OK. I'll help you out. The encoder I use is the one of two encoders that use the ORIGINAL Fraunhofer codec simply called CODEC. It gives full frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz at 128kps. That is how you know you have it. Also, it can't and will not encode anything above 128kps. Find one of the two that uses CODEC and you'll be good to go. They were last available sometime in late 1995 / early 1996.

Might be that impedance mismatch. I'm always quick to blame the cart though. I'm too impatient to wait for a cart to break in.

So you went to Brooks Berdan ltd.! I hear they are THE place to go to for TT's in So. Cal. Are you doing any needledrops yet?

Yes. This new version is very good. Here is how mine looks while I was comparing FLAC v. my MP3 encoder.

AKA Duophonic!

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Nice TT you got there David. You'd be surprised how good they can sound when properly set up. As for the Bugle - I hear it is quite the phono stage. I hear it can beat out the Sutherland phono stages in terms of sound quality. I really want a Bugle but I don't have the DIY knowledge to build one. (I am too cheap to buy it made)

Rubber Soul v. Pet Sounds would probably be the most obvious. Here are some I would choose: SMiLE (Beach Boys) v. Sgt. Pepper (The Beatles) Songs For Swingin' Lovers (Sinatra) v. modern romantic album Kind of Blue (Miles Davis) v. Time Out (Dave Brubeck) If I think of any other ones, I'll post them here.